Amazon Prime as a material source.

Maybe 1 out of 10 times I look on Amazon prime I cant believe the deal I find.

Today I needed a W-05 locking washer.
So off to Ace, then what was Checkers, I finished off the waste of time with a trip to Napa.

Total time maybe an hour and the only place that had the beginning of a clue was the Napa guy and he only really knew what the object was used for.

I found the exact item on Amazon Prime for right at a buck. I ordered 3 and with tax the total was $3.39 with free 2 day shipping.

Amazon Prime cost around $110 a year and it included a poor version of Netflix. Using Amazon Prime I have cut down the trips to the local auto part place. And the amount of counter person frustration even more. So for me its a great deal.

If you are thinking about it there is one little thing. Often a deal via Amazon Prime goes away the minute you order. For instance the washers I ordered today were $3.39 delivered. If I order more a hour later they are $11.37, 3 times as much. But honestly after wasting an hour driving around looking for them that sounds like a bargain.

Yep, Amazon dominates. They a fucking amazing company.

Check out Amazon Now. If they have it in your area, you can get some shit in less than an hour or two.
" Amazon Now costs nothing for existing Amazon Prime customers for a 2-hour delivery window. For a 1-hour delivery window, it costs $7.99/delivery. There is some default expectation built into the app to tip the driver $5, but that can be adjusted to not tip anything."

An Amazon employee I know was telling me that when shit like a new iPhone comes out, they will stock up their Amazon Now drivers with a bunch of them. Their record for order placed to delivery is something like five minutes. I think that was in NY city. Incredible.

Amazon as also been good with auto parts pricing if you know the part number you're looking for (otherwise it's a pain to search). There was a wheel bearing I needed that was $130 at Autozone and was $35 on Amazon. Same OEM part number from Timken

I sometimes have concerns about the 'quality' of the material on Amazon. I bought some brass stock, the price was right, but I really don't know much about the alloy or anything else. It was just for a decorative part, polished up nice.

Thanks,
Jim.

Just watch the Price. Prime is wonderful most of the time, BUT....

I use Amazon for a lot. You just can't beat it. They make it easy to find "Made in USA" products if you care about stuff like that, too.

Their technology in logistics and 'predictive inventory management' is fucking wild. John alluded to the Amazon Now delivery record of 5 minutes, because they just stock their drivers with product they -know- will be in demand... that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to warehouse inventory management. If you thought Kanban systems were first order management strategies, you haven't seen anything. They're damn near 'futurist' with their methods. They took the "Moneyball" approach to Baseball and applied it to warehouse management. They don't care at all what 'normal' is, and aren't afraid to take risks or try absolutely unconventional ideas. Real neat company.

My mother works for the USPS and loves Amazon Prime because she delivers so much (job security) though she does complain about the 60lb bags of dog food that seems popular. Then there's assholes like me who pay the extra $8 or so for 'next day shipping' on shit like heavy furniture "just because I can" lol. Amazon even got the USPS to deliver on /Sundays/ though it's a reduced personnel load that covers a larger area.. not the normal carriers working extra days. In our area it was a volunteer role, not something someone is forced to do via scheduling. There are enough people willing to work the Sunday, apparently.

I don't know how small businesses fair, in general, but I've been able to buy lots of 'small business' products through Amazon, that it makes me wonder if it's also getting smaller companies on a 'bigger stage' to market/sell their product too.

Sometimes the internet is great.

I'm with JWaldo. Finding "genuine" truly OEM parts on Amazon is difficult. Heaven help you if you try to buy OEM bulbs for digital projectors or toner/ink cartridges for printers. The vast majority of those items are NOT OEM or even OEM quality.

I've been buying a lot of "used" stuff on Amazon lately. The used category is where Amazon puts their scratch and dent items along with real used stuff from 3rd party sellers.

Description will say "minor cosmetic damage to packaging", "shipping fulfilled by Amazon". They price the used stuff 20% to 50% below the normal price, and it still has Prime's two day free shipping option.

My most recent purchase was a "used" Mitutoyo 4" digital calper I got for $94 because the outer cardboard wrapper that slides over the plastic case was slightly damaged. BFD.

I've also gotten some tools and other things from them that I just couldn't get locally for reasonable money or in reasonable time. The bearings in my lathe's gearbox came from there. They're Koyo bearings, and I got them for a price I couldn't beat anywhere else. They seem legit, older boxes and a file skated right off the bearing so its not made of cheese.

lazz said:

If you are thinking about it there is one little thing. Often a deal via Amazon Prime goes away the minute you order. For instance the washers I ordered today were $3.39 delivered. If I order more a hour later they are $11.37, 3 times as much. But honestly after wasting an hour driving around looking for them that sounds like a bargain.

Click to expand...

Copied and pasted the part number you wrote

And today they are $19.99

can you buy metal stock from them?

vonleyser: I guess Amazon figured out they were losing their shirts on those washers!!

You don't need Amazon prime to buy on Amazon. Paying $100 for a year of free shipping is not worth it for most people. I bought it when it was only $89 and it barely paid for itself, and I am a high volume buyer.

For 99% of people Prime is a money losing proposition. You get free shipping on any order over $40 or something like that. So, if you are buying from Amazon, just group your orders until you have more than $40 and you get free shipping anyway.

For many products, including a lot of machine parts, they are not shipped by Amazon so Prime is useless. When the vendor ships it you have to pay whatever shipping they say. Prime only applies to order FULFILLED BY AMAZON. For things like washers and screws, virtually none of those is shipped by Amazon. It's true that some vendors offer free shipping, but that is just the vendor policy and has nothing to do with Amazon prime.

jscpm said:

You don't need Amazon prime to buy on Amazon. Paying $100 for a year of free shipping is not worth it for most people. I bought it when it was only $89 and it barely paid for itself, and I am a high volume buyer.

For 99% of people Prime is a money losing proposition. You get free shipping on any order over $40 or something like that. So, if you are buying from Amazon, just group your orders until you have more than $40 and you get free shipping anyway.

For many products, including a lot of machine parts, they are not shipped by Amazon so Prime is useless. When the vendor ships it you have to pay whatever shipping they say. Prime only applies to order FULFILLED BY AMAZON. For things like washers and screws, virtually none of those is shipped by Amazon. It's true that some vendors offer free shipping, but that is just the vendor policy and has nothing to do with Amazon prime.

Click to expand...

My orders rarely make it to $40, and are items that I would otherwise either pay too damn much for in the store, or would have to meet minimum orders of $25 otherwise pay a $9.99 fee. So, prime gets my business. Companies that are still using shipping as a profit center are ignorant. I'd rather pay more for an item than pay an exorbinant handling fee.

So, Amazon, Mcmaster...well, I guess those are the primary places I order from.

I had to order powder coating powder. 3 lbs of the crap, they charged me $13 bucks. Sent it USPS priority. Didn't cost them more than $8....plus, they are getting at least 100% markup on the powder in short quantity. Pretty damn lucrative.

As an example Amazon order...2 apple iphone cords for ten bucks shipped second day for free. Arduino sensors shipped second day for free. Books, OTC medications, batteries, the list goes on. I *hate* going to the store. If my wife can't get it at the grocery store, and I can't get it off Amazon...I usually try to go without.

Interesting. I search for the W-05 washers and get a page for $.78 each, plus $9.03 shipping.... And four others with similar total prices. No prime.

You have to be careful what you order as well. If it's fulfilled from a China third party, there's a high probability that it's fake. I had the Smith Little torch on my wish list ($166.12 on Zoro), and received a Smith Little Torch as a gift, direct ship from China, and they spent about $50. Amazon is showing it for as little as $36 now, with what appears to be the legitimate torch priced at $119.95 with prime.

The torch I received is a very faithful copy, including the box and packaging shape, but the small sizes of tips are drilled, not inset laser drilled sapphire as in the genuine torch. The packaging foam was a really cheap messy stuff as well.

I'm not using it every day, so it is adequate, but if you were trying to make a living with it, I think you'd be disappointed.